Gippy Plantation  Cooper River  Berkeley County

Basic Information

Location  Western branch of the Cooper River, St. John's Berkeley Parish, Berkeley County

366 Avenue of Oaks, Moncks Corner

John Strobel transcribed the historic location from a 1859 mortgage document (page 1 | 2) to read "the Plantation is bounded to the North by part of 'Fairlawn' known as 'Old House Tract' owned by John S. White. Bounded to the East by the Cooper River; South by lands of Keating Simons Sr. and Keating Lewis Simons known as 'Lewisfield' also by lands of Alexander M. Porcher known as 'Oak Hill' also by lands formerly owned by H.B. Magrath and sold to Dr. Theodore S. Gaillard then sold to ??; West by Black Tom Bay." (5)

Both Gippy and Jippy are Bantu (African) words for "short." For example, Tshitupa tshipi means "in a short time, in a jiffy" (1). The swamp in the area was called Gippy and John White named his plantation after the swamp (3, p. 95).

Current status  Originally part of Fairland Barony, most of the property has been subdivided into residential and commercial properties. The house remains and sits on a 4.81-arce lot.

?  A new house built with the help of neighboring planters (3, p. 95).

1859  John S. White put the plantation up as collateral for a mortgage with William James Ball. White would pay installments until 1864. If he failed to pay, Gippy Plantation would become Ball's (mortgage document, page 1 | 2) (5).

1861  John S. White died and it seems the plantation was left to his son, John St. Clair White (3, p. 95).

1927  Nicholas G. Roosevelt acquired the plantation. He introduced a herd of Guernsey cattle whose "Gippy" milk was still available as of 1987. The Roosevelts restored and enlarged the house (3, p. 95-96).

1972  The estate of Nicholas G. Roosevelt sold Gippy Plantation to Percy Hauglie, Jim Daniel, and Manuel Cohen. The plantation's property was divided into business use and residential housing developments (3, p. 96).

1982  Gippy was selected for the filming of several scenes for the movie Lords of Discipline (3, p. 96).

2016  The Gippy Plantation house, which sits on a 4.81-arce lot, was for sale with an asking price of $1.2 million.

Land

Number of acres  1,875 in 1821; 1,846 in 1859 consisting of approximately 45 acres of swamp planted in rice, 600 acres of high land of which 300 acres was planted in cotton, 200 acres uncleared inland swamp, and 1,000 acres of pine; 4.81 in 2016 (3) (5)